crystal

[wroughtamiss]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Deacon and Myrobalan
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Confess your weird magic Inquisition
WHEN: Throughout the month
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES:
HERE is the survey sheet if you want to just fill it out that way. HERE are the assignment details. Also if you've got a rifter and/or a non-loyalist mage who'd like to be part of this please PM Deacon's journal and we'll sort it since they'd include one of each to try to get better coverage.
There's the option to self-report via npc if your character wouldn't but you'd like to. If you'd like to report on other characters please check with that player first but I know we got spies and shady folks and that's fun but let's make it fun for everyone!

Greetings Inquisition. In light of the negotiations some of your number participated in there are of course promises to be upheld on the Inquisition's end. Namely concerning magic or abilities those among you called rifters possess not native to Thedas as well as magic outside the Circle.

If you'd complete this survey, you'd have our gratitude. If you will have it, you'll have the Chantry's gratitude too: I needn't have to tell you the importance of not sitting idle, all of you.

We'll be available if you'd rather do this in person but copies of the survey are available in the Chantry Relations office.

As with the medical surveys and the information we’re keeping on the shardbearers, this will be maintained--and transferred to the Chantry--under a cipher. If you’ve further concerns about what might be done with what we’ve gathered, [and Myr’s tone says he very well knows there will be,] I’d ask you bring them to me as the new head of Chantry Relations.

[Not for him this whole formal announcement stuff; or, more likely, he’s had too much on his mind to make one. Nevertheless, a splinter of his usual humor:] I’ll be with the surveys in the office.

Comments

private

[rathercommon]

I've got a name, Wysteria. Just cause we haven't talked before doesn't mean I haven't got one.

[ A huff. Honestly. ]

And yeah. The reason is that when people learn of new types of power, more often than not, they want to learn how they can use it and exploit it. 'Cause that's how people work.

permaprivate

[heirring]

Well I hardly doubt your parents forgot to name you. That was meant as an invitation for you to introduce yourself.

[Thank you very much. Also, pardon you. That first name is for particular friends only. Nevermind the rest of it (as: obviously; what does she sound like, a complete imbecile?).]

[rathercommon]

[ She purses her lips. ]

Kitty. I'm in research.

[heirring]

Oh, [Well. Not at all contrite, but certainly reconsidering being so tart:] I'm the same.

[Rally, Wysteria, rally!]

Are you a rifter as well, Kitty?

[rathercommon]

Yeah, I am. Been here a few months longer than you.

[ But, a bit impatient with these pleasantries - ]

You're not telling 'em anything, right?

[heirring]

Oh, I already have actually.

[rathercommon]

[ god damn it ]

Well - what did you tell them, then? [ Maybe the girl's a commoner, or something like it. Maybe she hasn't got anything to tell. ]

[heirring]

[There's something that might be said along the lines of Why should I tell you if I'm meant to be keeping it a secret?, but bother that. They're both rifters and that means Kitty knows she isn't some demon from beyond the Fade here to break a favorite cup or eat a few fingers off a baby.]

Nothing much at all, really. I'm only a magician-- er, mage-- of very minor skill.

[rathercommon]

[ Oh, for crying out loud - Kitty lets out a noise of pure frustration. ]

Why on earth - You oughtn't have - You know they're going to use that against you!

[heirring]

I tell you, if someone can figure out a way to use that against me then they'll have already decided that they're going to be awful and would find a reason regardless of what I had or hadn't told them.

[rathercommon]

Well, they might have left you alone, though.

[ Shaking her head - ]

Your magic - how's it work? Is it like the magic here?

[heirring]

No, it's not at all like the kind here. Though it must be related, because the sort here is something I'm aware of. I just haven't quite worked out how to touch it yet. And I can still work my own, which means the energies present at home must be here in some form as well. [Which would be a very compelling paper, upon her inevitable return to Kalvad. Though knowing her luck, someone will have figured out The Great Question all on their own.]

What about you? Is yours the same?

[rathercommon]

I haven't got any magic.

[ Which isn't a lie. Anyway - ]

And that, there, that's what'd put you in danger. You don't think some Tevinter magister who wants some advantage, he wouldn't pursue a new way of casting spells? By studying you? Or the mages here, looking for some new way of magic that's less politically dangerous?

[heirring]

[Ah, untalented. That's too bad; it might have been interesting to talk about other rifter magicks.]

Well. Yes, I suppose I can see how that could happen. But honestly, those both sound like very distant future problems whereas the most immediate one seems to be convincing the whole world that I'm not here to murder swathes of people or steal their souls or reanimate a corpse or five, and being honest about the matter seems the most thoughtful course of action. I can hardly be trusted if I'm not willing to be forthright, now can I?

[rathercommon]

[ With a tone of are-you-crazy: ]

Of course you can be trusted if you're not willing to be forthright. Just don't let on that you're not being forthright. [ Then, with another frustrated noise: ] Not that there's any possibility for that now, with you giving all that up.

[heirring]

You're right, of course. The horse is free the barn already; no sense closing the door behind it. [She doesn't, despite Kitty's clear horror, really sound any more concerned than she had to begin with.] But the effect is much the same, I think you know. In the sense that the only option any of us have is to endear ourselves one way or another to those about us and trust that will be enough to protect us should the very worst come to pass.

What local friends have you made, Kitty?

[rathercommon]

I - [ Kitty's slightly taken aback by the non-sequitur. ] What? Why do you ask?

[heirring]

Only out of interest for your safety. Should something awful happen, should someone decide that people like us are dangerous or need to be monitored or-- kept in a tower or whatever else someone might think to do once this war is all over, then we may find ourselves very reliant on the good word of people the rest of the world would have no reason to doubt. At the very least, it would benefit us to have a few people from here willing to speak for us. I can't imagine anyone who thinks we're demons or dangerous will put up with whatever argument we might try to say otherwise.

I think it might be a very good idea to make ourselves useful friends to some good people who might care to do the talking when it comes to that. I could introduce you to some of my friends here if you've yet to make any.

[From anyone else, that might sound like an insult.]

[rathercommon]

[ Frankly, it sounds sort of like an insult from her, too. So, a little bit clipped: ]

I'm not much of a go-out-and-make-friends sort of person, thanks.

[ Which - maybe seems a little bit counter to the attempted charm offensive she's been letting loose since getting here. ]

[heirring]

[Maybe, just maybe, she meant it as one. Only a little though.]

Then it sounds like we both should consider making a few personal sacrifices for our future security.

[rathercommon]

Where's yours, then?

[heirring]

Friends, or sacrifices?

[rathercommon]

Sacrifices.

[ Duh. ]

[heirring]

Well I haven't been practicing magick, for one. [Much. Not really.] Which I'm sure is wreaking havok on the accuracy of my gestures and words of power, which absolutely won'tbe bothersome down the road when I'mtrying to recall them and have no books to reference. And evidently I also must now commit myself to being better at keeping my mouth shut.

[That second one being the most dire, clearly.]

[rathercommon]

[ God, this girl makes Kitty want to grind her teeth. ]

Yeah, those are all things to keep yourself alive and not vivisected or tortured or put on display like a circus-elephant. Not things for the group of Rifters as a whole.